The Tart Mayo Alternative That Turns Ordinary Potato Salad Into A Gourmet Side Dish

When you imagine a typical potato salad, I'm guessing you're thinking of one that comes with a mayo-based dressing. (If you can't tell, I'm clearly a Midwesterner.) But remember, creamy potato salads can be dressed with other bases, like yogurt or sour cream. If you want to raise the profile of your usual potato salad a bit, there's always a much fancier option: crème fraîche.

To me, French crème fraîche is like sour cream but silkier and richer, and if you use that as a base for your potato salad dressing, you've automatically stepped up your game. Plus, since it's a fancy-sounding ingredient (the foreign language helps), if you've got guests coming over, you can casually mention that you're serving a crème fraîche potato salad. I'm sure even the concept will help win you brownie points. 

Now, while it sounds pretty elegant, crème fraîche is actually something you can make at home easily, and it's totally worth it. It only takes two ingredients: heavy cream and buttermilk. All you need to do is combine the two things and let it sit out, pretty much for a day, and it'll form on its own. Of course, you can also buy it at the grocery store; I've typically found it near the boutique cheese section. But it's not a cheap ingredient (it can be over twice the price of sour cream, from my experience), so keep that in mind if you're shopping on a budget.

Because crème fraîche is so rich and creamy on its own, it's good with anything, from savory items to sweet ones. If you've ever wanted to try caviar, one of the easiest and most fun ways to enjoy it is on potato chips. Just take your chip of choice, add a spot of crème fraîche, then a small spoonful of caviar, and enjoy. The silkiness of the crème fraîche will round out the strong brininess from the caviar, giving you a balanced bite.

And since crème fraîche has no salt, it also pairs perfectly with fruit. We've got a recipe for roasted strawberry crème fraîche ice cream that pairs the creaminess of the stuff with the concentrated flavor of roasted strawberries (which helps drive out excess moisture). So really, just think of it as sour cream but more elevated and infinitely usable, which is why it's just as at home on potato salad as it is on grilled peaches. Even chef Gordon Ramsay uses crème fraîche as one of the tricks to make the fluffiest scrambled eggs, so I have a feeling that finding a use for it in your kitchen shouldn't be a problem.